A Multi-Disciplinary Approach

BioNumerik's pharmaceutical research is based upon the concurrent expertise of multi-disciplinary teams that apply leading edge technologies to drug discovery. This multi-disciplinary focus is the heart of our company's overall strategy and operations. Our pharmaceutical research teams are focused on developing promising new classes of drugs for the treatment of cancer.

Our interdisciplinary scientific team of researchers in the areas of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Computational Chemistry, Cell Biology, Biochemistry, Formulation, Molecular Biology, Molecular Pharmacology, Computer Science, Mathematics, and Physics works together to design, synthesize, evaluate and optimize potential drug candidates.

Physics-based high-performance computing simulations, where thousands of compounds can be screened virtually in terms of free energy profiles, calculated stabilities and reactivities, enable researchers to identify promising targets for synthetic organic approaches. Computational chemists work closely with researchers in organic chemistry and molecular biology and biochemistry to model macromolecular interactions of the cellular targets for these virtual compounds. Organic chemists develop elegant and efficient synthetic methodologies to make these virtual molecules a reality. Cell biologists, molecular pharmacologists and biochemists evaluate compounds for anti-cancer activity.

Computational Chemistry

At BioNumerik one of our core competencies is using advanced high-performance computing to engineer high quality models of molecular interactions involving DNA, proteins and other targets. This involves simulating structural properties of drug candidates and related molecules using a variety of high-level quantum mechanical methods. An additional core competency is the utilization of classical and statistical mechanical tools to better understand the structural relationships between small molecules and large systems. These core competencies allow us to study the mechanisms of action of drug candidates and their relevant targets.

Once we have identified the likely mechanisms of action of the target and characterized the properties of potential drug candidates, we use an iterative process of computer analysis and laboratory testing to select, study, and optimize the most promising drug candidates.

Our team of experienced scientific and technical software programmers has developed a number of proprietary software programs. Our proprietary software includes programs for molecular simulations and the interpretation, analysis and visualization of the results of our computer simulations. Two important proprietary software programs that BioNumerik employs are "Superfold" to generate 3-dimensional structures of proteins using only the primary protein sequence information (ab initio modeling of protein structure) and proprietary formulation software to facilitate the design and efficiency of drug candidate formulation using a variety of parameters.

We maintain extensive onsite computing resources, including Linux-based clusters and high performance graphics workstations. Our high performance computers and other computing resources are integrated with our laboratory capabilities. Many of our key laboratory instruments are linked by computers and the information generated can be moved, stored and shared in and around the Company. We plan to maintain our leadership position for computing capability in the pharmaceutical industry by continuing to expand our capabilities and upgrade our technology.

Chemistry Drug Discovery and Process Development Programs

BioNumerik's organic chemistry laboratory operation is designed to handle and execute a wide array of modern chemical technologies by bridging medicinal chemistry and process research, along with physical chemistry, analytical chemistry, bio-analytical chemistry, inorganic chemistry and others. Design of new drug candidates, isolation of new leads, structure elucidation, purity determination, metabolite identification and optimizing synthetic routes from discovery to clinical batch manufacturing level are among the many tasks addressed by our discovery scientists and process chemists who function as core members of multi-disciplinary project teams.

BioNumerik's chemistry & development operation provides diverse opportunities for its team members to adapt, learn, grow and apply their expertise and experiences to other areas of interest. This program allows our team members to interact with other groups and learn from colleagues and apply the knowledge they obtain to other research problems.

Our analytical research group also develops methods for the characterization of new drug substances and drug intermediates. These analytical methods evaluate the quality of BioNumerik's drug candidates for pre-clinical and clinical evaluations. Advanced technology is applied to the development of novel analytical methods. The analytical data generated provides resourceful insight into the chemical processes for producing drugs and guides both drug discovery chemists and process chemists in their optimization of these processes.

One of the key branches of BioNumerik's pharmaceutical sciences is our proprietary formulation capability. BioNumerik has broad capabilities in the development of a wide range of high performance computing assisted elegant pharmaceutical formulations for the development of novel drug delivery systems. One of the strengths in our formulation technologies is the capability of high performance computing aided programs to predict crucial mechanisms and factors affecting transport of drugs across membranes, the role of permeability in drug disposition, and physiochemical characterization of interactions between small molecules and macromolecules of biological or synthetic origin during the drug transport under physiological settings. Such advanced capabilities allow us to predict clinical consequences of drug interactions, using established theoretical and physiologically based pharmacokinetic models.

Our modern chemistry laboratories are fully equipped with state-of-the-art equipment used for total synthesis, analytical methods development & validation, formulation development and process & development capabilities up to kilogram scale. Physical and molecular characterization of synthesized compounds is accomplished using a comprehensive range of onsite analytical instrumentation.

In addition to internal research, BioNumerik can address pharmaceutical chemistry and manufacturing requirements through selected contract process development and manufacturing facilities.

Biochemical and Molecular Pharmacology

At BioNumerik, cell biologists, molecular biologists, and biochemists work closely with synthetic organic chemists, computational chemists and computer scientists in the design and development of new synthetic targets and the in silico evaluation of interactions between potential drug candidates, existing drugs and cellular macromolecules.

In the laboratory, research in molecular pharmacology, biochemistry and cell and molecular biology involves evaluation of lead compounds, development of new assay methodologies, elucidation of molecular interactions between drug candidates and cellular macromolecules and basic research in a number of scientific areas. Additionally, to develop assays that are as physiologically relevant as possible, emphasis is also placed on understanding clinical information (e.g., ADME profiles) and incorporating this into experimental design as early as possible.

We make effective use of robotics and computational related technology in our laboratory for biological and biochemical research. Additionally, the laboratory is fully equipped with advanced instrumentation required to pursue drug discovery research in the area of tumor biology, cell biology, molecular biology, molecular biophysics and pharmacology.